Laissez-le la neige
by charlibubble
Summary: Meaning: Let it Snow Post 'The lost reindeer' one-shot fic. Modges of course. Merry Christmas!


_**A/N: Ok so I have no laptop and I have a thousand other stories to update but come on, did you all SEE the lost reindeer? How could I not write this? Any self-respecting Modges-er will understand how this episode has single headedly made my Christmas better. In fact I may go thank the writers for my Christmas present (let all us Modges-ers ignore the very obvious Morganders in this episode and join hands to praise the Modges instead ;-)) Also, there is every possibility I am delirious from paint fumes so I may regret writing this later! :D  
Anyway the point is, I want to wish you all a merry Christmas. I don't know when I will get back to writing regularly again but I hope it will be soon. Enjoy this random little one-shot and may all your dreams come true ;) (ooo even getting some GSR in there, go me!)  
HAPPY HOLIDAYS XXX**_

The snow inside its little glass bubble fluttered slowly to the ground as Hodges watched with a wistful expression on his face. It wasn't an audacious gift but the sentiment behind it was all there and he appreciated that. A snow globe, to anyone else it may seem cheap and tacky but he could remember their shopping trip last weekend when she had been helping him choose his secret Santa gift and they had come across these. He had regaled her with a comprehensive history of the snow globe and she had quickly told him to 'Etre Calme' when he started waxing lyrical about French culture. He appreciated the subtle nod to their unconventional relationship.

He cast his mind back to selecting their secret Santa recipient. It had been running for a number of years, since before he arrived in fact but the only time he had ever felt any kind of excitement or anticipation regarding it had been when Wendy was gracing the labs with her beauty and grace. Christmas had never been a magical time for him, at an early age he had been well aware of the commercial quality of the season and it sickened him at times to witness the expense and the madness in it all. He had worked far too many suicides at this time of year to ever consider it a magical time and yet this year there was a certain feeling of cheer in the air that he simply couldn't ignore. He was certain that he even saw a twinkle in his own eye that evening when he went to work.

He had secretly been hoping for Morgan. Despite his attempt at detaching himself from the sentiment of Christmas he had already formed an idea of the perfect gift for her. He waited till last to select his recipient, maintaining his air of nonchalance as he did so but his heart sank a little when the name so carefully printed on his paper was not Morgan.

It disturbed him slightly to realise just how disappointed he was. His forbidden infatuation with her was becoming a problem that he was struggling to ignore. He tried to pass it off as a blessing in disguise. The one year when he had selected Wendy had been such a disaster he had vowed to never participate again. Of course, that vow had been quashed by a rather determined Catherine Willows the following year and nobody ever dared say no to Catherine.

They had 3 weeks to choose their gift and as the days wore on Hodges found himself struggling to ignore the voice inside his head that pointed him in the direction of gifts that Morgan would like. It was unfortunate given that his recipient was Jim Brass and therefore about as far removed from Morgan as humanly possible and about as cynical as he was himself.

It took a lot of planning and a certain amount of cunning but as the party wound on inside the lab Hodges put the final touches to his grand gesture. It wasn't normally something he would do. He had never been a person who performed gestures like this. He would never be mistaken for a hopeless romantic but if this past year had taught him anything about love and about life it was that it was short lived and incredibly precious. Having someone special in your life was worth much more than a small secret Santa gift.

Right on cue Santa came stomping through the corridor with a huge bunch of flowers and a card. The eyes of his colleagues and friends all lit up to see the spectacle and he felt pride and joy well up inside his soul as Mr Claus approached Morgan and handed off the message.

He pretended not to care what was going on. Kept his eyes trained on other things whenever she looked around but he watched when the opportunity was there. He watched as she opened the tiny envelope and read the typed note inside. She cast a suspicious look around the room, looking for the culprit and he was sure that her gaze had lingered on him a little longer than anyone else.

He watched her discuss it with Finn, watched her disbelief and excitement as they both agreed she should follow the simple instruction that said 'go to the roof'

Just about the entire lab followed her up the stairs and so, Hodges felt able to participate without being too obvious. As Morgan opened the heavy fire door onto the roof a communal gasp of delight resounded around the tiny stairwell.

It was snowing! Snowing in Las Vegas, soft white flakes of snow fell softly to the rooftop of the lab, coating it in a thick blanket of white. He knew she had never seen real snow, knew that growing up in LA and Las Vegas had never gave her much opportunity to experience it and since snow was synonymous with Christmas he felt it would be the perfect gift for her.

He wasn't wrong. To see her standing there, her eyes wide and joyful, her smile bright and beautiful he was sure he could feel the magic of Christmas wrapping around them. In his moment of indulgence, she caught his eye across the now crowded rooftop. He couldn't look away, he willed himself to, begged himself to and yet he seemed to be drawn into some kind of trance by her gaze. His smile must have given him away, or the look in his eye but he was certain she knew it was him, certain that his carefully planned alibi was useless, certain that the magic and beauty of the moment had been tarnished by the motives behind it.

In actual fact, his only motive had been to make her happy. The only motive he ever had was to make her smile and magic, beauty and faith was the way to her heart. Somehow she had been able to keep the beauty of life within her soul out here, it was something few people were able to do and when he was with her he found it was contagious.

The party somehow transplanted itself in the middle of their little man-made snow flurry. Around him there was laughter and smiling faces. He still felt detached, he always had. Despite having forged friendships and bonds with the team he was still a shadow on the outskirts of everything. He didn't know how to fix that, he wasn't even sure he wanted to. He had never had a problem with being the odd one out, the rebel without a cause, the lone wolf. It concerned him that he had now developed some inane need to be close to people. He had always considered himself above such attachments.

She approached him slowly, as though she was afraid to startle him. She was probably wise in doing so; he was nowhere near prepared to be standing face to face with her on a rooftop full of people. He was ill prepared to speak to her at all he found as he scrambled to form coherent words.

"I know it was you" She whispered softly as she stood by his side and watched the party with him. Hodges was now unable to form any sound at all with his lips. He hadn't planned this far ahead, in fact he had intended to slip out unnoticed long before it came to this. Explanations were not his thing, certainly not when it came to explaining grand romantic gestures like this.

She didn't seem to mind though; she simply passed him a mug of eggnog and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek with a whisper of a thank you burning onto his lips for the rest of the night and he realised all of a sudden that this was the magic of Christmas everybody talked about. This was what made the season so special; making someone you love smile is all Christmas is about.


End file.
